Tuesday, November 3 2020 12:13

ArmInfo.RA  Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan gave an interview to The Jerusalem Post. The press service of the RA PM presented an article about the interview published on the periodical's website, which is presented below.

"Israel has lined up with Turkey, terrorists and Syrian mercenaries  in backing Azerbaijan in the current conflict with Armenia, and will  eventually suffer the consequence of that alliance," Armenian Prime  Minister Nikol Pashinyan told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive  interview on Monday.

Speaking from Yerevan via Zoom, Pashinyan blasted Jerusalem for  arming Azerbaijan, which he said is intent on "carrying out genocide  against Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh."

Azerbaijan and Armenia are in the sixth week of fighting over the  disputed region, with estimates of the fatalities on both sides  ranging from 1,500 to 5,000.

While Israel has not commented formally on the fighting and the  Foreign Ministry is trying to keep Israel out of the conflict,  Pashinyan said that Israel is now very actively engaged in the  conflict, "because Israeli UAVs are actively used in the war against  Nagorno-Karabakh."

Armenia recalled its ambassador to Israel for consultations in early  October - just two weeks after it opened an embassy in Tel Aviv - to  protest arms sales to its enemy.

"I think that Israel should think about the following," the Prime  Minister said. "Mercenaries, Islamic terrorists and Israel are now on  the same side basically, so Israel should think, is this really a  convenient position for it to be?"

Israel should also ponder, he made clear, whether it really wants to  be on the same side in the conflict as Turkey, which he claims has  moved thousands of Syrian mercenaries into Azerbaijan to fight  against Nagorno-Karabakh.

President Reuven Rivlin, soon after Armenia recalled its ambassador,  called his Armenian counterpart and offered humanitarian aid. Asked  whether his country would be interested in Israeli humanitarian aid,  Pashinyan replied bitterly: "Humanitarian aid by a country that is  selling weapons to mercenaries, which they are using to strike a  civilian peaceful population? I propose that Israel send that aid to  the mercenaries and to the terrorists as the logical continuation of  its activities."

Israel has emerged over the last decade as Azerbaijan's largest arms  supplier, followed by Russia and Belarus.  Israel views Azerbaijan,  because of its strategic location on Iran's border and the fact that  it provides Israel with a large percentage of its oil needs, as one  of its most important strategic allies.

Israel's ties with Armenia, which has strong relations with  neighboring Iran, as well as with Russia, have warmed up in recent  years, and before the recall of the ambassador, could be  characterized as "cordial." Pashinyan said that the involvement of  Turkey and Syrian mercenaries in the conflict has badly complicated  the situation: "Their presence in the region poses a threat not only  to Nagorno-Karabakh, but also Iran has stated that it views it as a  threat, and Russia has stated that it views it as a threat."

The Armenian prime minister said that while in the past there was  only indirect evidence that Turkey was mobilizing Syrian mercenaries  to fight in Azerbaijan, now there is concrete evidence since two  mercenaries were recently captured by Nagorno-Karabakh forces.

"One of them has testified comprehensively, and said that he was  living in a Turkish-controlled Syrian refugee camp. He described how  he was recruited, described where they became engaged, and how they  crossed the border into Turkey at an official check point, but  without anyone asking them any questions or checking them." Pashinyan  said the mercenaries were being promised $2,000 a month.

The Prime Minister said that what was so dangerous about this  situation, and why the international community should take note and  action against it, is because it represents a new Turkish modus  operandi - what he called a "mechanism" - in its aim to "reinstate  the Ottoman empire, as strange as that may sound." This "mechanism" -  recruiting mercenaries from among the Syrian population under Turkish  control to advance Ankara's foreign policy goals - has already been  used in Libya, is now evident in Nagorno- Karabakh, "and who knows  where it will be tried next," he said.

"This is a totally new mechanism that has been put into place, and  this mechanism may be manifested in different places and in different  ways" as long as the international community does not respond.  "I am  very glad that many countries in the Middle East, including many Arab  countries, are making the proper assessment and calling this by its  name, understanding what a threat this poses to international peace  and stability," he said.

Pashinyan said that certain "shifts are taking place in the  international security system, and that those shifts also contain  elements of hybrid warfare. Mercenaries are engaging in that warfare.  And that hybrid warfare can be manifested in different ways - it can  be manifested in ways which we see in Nagorno-Karabakh, or in ways in  which we are seeing in Vienna, or in Nice, in France, or in Canada,"  all recent sites of terror, or attempted terror acts, by Islamists.

"The world needs to look at this new activity by Turkey and draw the  necessary conclusions, because it will use this new way of  implementing its foreign policy elsewhere as well," he predicted.

"Israel should ask itself the question - is it not fighting de facto  alongside mercenaries against Nagorno- Karabakh? Is this a convenient  position for it? If it is, God be with it. But I think that there  will be specific consequences, and you will have to face those  consequences."

Pashinyan said that it was only a matter of time before Turkey's  "imperialistic ambition" will be aimed toward Israel.

Asked if he was warning that at some point Turkey would mobilize  Syrian mercenaries to march on Jerusalem, the prime minister said  that he was not warning about anything specific, but rather about the  creation of a "political environment and political atmosphere, and  the gaps which have emerged in the international security system. And  if there are gaps, corridors and loopholes, somebody will try to pass  through them. And this won't necessarily be in one area, or in two  areas, there will be traffic in all possible directions."